Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland: Clubmakers

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Clubmakers

John S Pearson
London/Ocala/Richmond NY

Peter Georgiady writes that John S Pearson ‘was little known outside the London area’ but, in fact, his time as a professional at Southall was a very small part of his career.

He learned his golf in his home town of Elie and took up the post of professional at the West Middlesex club in Southall in 1895. He regularly played in tournaments. That year he was just behind James Braid in a competition at Raynes Park and played in a foursome with him against J H Taylor and Archie Simpson at Maidenhead in Kent in 1898. He went down to Devon to play in one of the big tournaments at Westward Ho! and home to Elie for a tournament in August 1898 which featured most of the top players north and south of the border.

He was recruited to the United States in 1900 to become the first professional to the Homewood Country Club (soon to become the Flossmoor Country Club) in the southern suburbs of Chicago where he remained for two seasons. He opened the course with a match against Alex Smith, a future two-time winner of the US Open.

J D Dunn was managing the Floridian Golf Company’s five courses in 1901 and had J S Pearson as one of his professionals (presumably at Ocala) as Pearson was reported as leaving for his ‘winter quarters’ there in November of that year and in subsequent ones. James Foulis and Laurence Auchterlonie were two of the other professionals working in this consortium and Auchterlonie won the 1901 Western Open over the Midlothian course in Chicago, an event in which Pearson also competed.

Spending his time at Ocala in the winter, the rest of the year was spent, from 1902 until the end of 1909 as professional to the Richmond County, NY, club and, from here, he played in the US Opens at Baltusrol in 1903 and at Myopia in 1908 (and at the Van Cortland Park Open of the same year).

It was announced in December 1909 that he was leaving Richmond for Chicago.

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